Divider plates for trays



y 1953 c. F. wou'zns 2,843,131

' mvmm Pu'ms FOR TRAYS Filed Aug. 14. 1956 INVENTOR CARL F. WOLTERS BY L /w w .9.M M

ATTORNEY United States Patent DIVIDER PLATES non rams Carl F. Wolters, New Canaan, C0nn., assignor to Sperry Rand Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application August 14, 1956, Serial No. 603,973

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-16) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in tilting divider plates for trays, drawers and the like.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple, efiicient, economical structure of tilting divider plate which, in whatever position it is disposed, will lie with its bottom edge close to the bottom of the drawer, tray, or the like, so that filed material in the drawer, tray, and the like cannot crawl or creep under the bottom of the plate and thus interfere with the proper operation of the plate not to mention that the material thus disposed is not in an orderly position with respect to the other filed material.

In general terms the invention has to do with a drawer or tray in which a divider plate is disposed to rest on the bottom of the tray and swing forwardly or backwardly through a predetermined arc. The plate is provided with outwardly extending ears or tabs at opposite side edges at the bottom thereof. These tabs are disposed to extend into openings formed in the side walls of the tray. The plates are of flexible material so that initially they may be bent enough to permit the tabs to be thus inserted. In order to insure that the bottom of the plate rests at all times on the bottom of the tray and does not have any appreciable vertical movement, the upper wall of the opening into which the tabs extend is arcuate in form and of a curvature such that as the plate is pivoted and swung in one direction or the other the upper edge of the tabs will always lie closely below the upper wall and be unable to have any appreciable vertical movement. To this end the openings are of a shape substantially sectorlike with the converging side walls not quite meeting so as to permit the bottom of the tabs a certain freedom of movement to swing.

The preferred form of the invention is illustrated in the drawings, of which,

Fig. 1 is an enlarged vertical section through the tab on one end of the divider plate and showing its disposition in the opening in the side wall of the drawer;

Fig. 2 is a partial exploded sectional view of one portion of the drawer and the adjacent end of the divider plate.

Referring to the particular form of the invention shown in the drawings, there is shown a receptacle for filed material in the form of a tray, drawer or the like and having side walls of which one is shown and a bottom wall 11. Along the side walls near the bottom thereof is preferably welded an extra plate 12 which extends toward the bottom of the drawer and near its bottom is integrally provided with a horizontal wall 13 at the outer edge of which is formed a dependent integral wall 14 extending to the bottom of the drawer and preferably Welded thereto. It is of course understood that there is a similar 2,843,131 Patented July 15, 1958 ice plate 12 along the other side wall of the drawer with related walls 13 and 14. These walls 13 and 14 on each side of the drawer form a channel and in the vertical walls 14 of these channels are formed openings 15 which are substantially sector-shaped and the top walls of these openings are arcuate-shaped and formed by curving the horizontal wall 13 at points 16 above each opening. The arcuate wall 16 is the circumference of a circle the center of which is substantially at the center of the space on the bottom wall 11 where the converging sides of the openings 15 contact the bottom wall 11.

These openings are provided at opposite spaced positions in the wall 15 to receive ears or tabs 18 on opposite lower ends of a divider plate 17. These ears 18 project into the openings 15 and are of a height substantially equal to the radius of the sector-shaped opening above described. Therefore it is evident that as the plate 17 is swung or tilted forwardly or rearwardly it abuts the radial sides of the openings 15 to limit the movement in one or the other direction of the plate 17. It will be noted that as the ears swing from one extreme position to the other the top edge thereof lies closely adjacent the under side of the wall 16 and the bottom edge thereof lies in contact with the bottom of the drawer since the height of the ears is equal to the radius of the circle of which the wall 16 is the circumference. Therefore in swinging from a vertical position to an inclined one, in either direction from the vertical, the bottom of the ear remains closely adjacent the bottom of the drawer and consequently no filed material can creep under the dividerplate. From Figure 1, it will be seen that the converging sides of the opening do not quite meet and therefore permit the bottom of the tab 18 to have freedom to swing in one direction or another while at the same time the upper edge of the tab in any position of the plate lies closely adjacent the arcuate wall 16.

I claim:

In combination a drawer having bottom and side walls, channel members disposed along the drawer at the sides thereof, a horizontal flange at the bottom of each channel member and extending inwardly away from the side Walls of the drawer, a vertical flange on each channel member at the outer edge of the horizontal flange and extending downwardly to the bottom of the drawer, said vertical flanges having spaced openings therein, the sides of said openings converging downwardly to the bottom of the drawer and slightly spaced apart thereat, the horizontal flanges of the channel members above said openings being formed in an arc, the radius of which is substantially equal to the length of the sides of said openings, a tiltable divider plate resting on the bottom of the drawer, flat ears on the opposite sides of the plate at the bottom thereof and extending into said openings, the height of the ears being only slightly less than the radius of said are.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,734,168 Hunter Nov. 5, 1929 2,758,602 Anderson Aug. 14, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 787,164 France June 24, 1935 614,981 Great Britain Dec. 30, 1948 143,579 Sweden Jan. 12, 1954 

